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Applications were due on June 17, 2005. Around August 2005, 800 applicants were invited for an interview by CBS. Out of these 800, 48 of them were selected as semi-finalists and they were invited to Los Angeles in September 2005. From these semi-finalists, 16 were chosen the show and filming took place in November to December 2005.

Exile Island: After a Reward Challenge, players may banish a player from the rival tribe to Exile Island. This island (entirely separate from the existing camps) will force the banished player to fend for him/herself until the upcoming Immunity Challenge (unless stated otherwise). The player would not be left in despair, for he/she will be given clues to a Hidden Immunity Idol that is hidden somewhere on the island.

Rehashed Hidden Immunity Idol Mechanism: Unlike the previous season where the Hidden Immunity Idol is used like the Immunity Necklace, the mechanism of using the Idol was now changed. Instead of revealing the Idol before voting, the owner must draw it when he/she had enough votes to eliminate him/her. The votes cast against that player will be considered spoilt, while the person that gets the second highest amount of votes will be eliminated instead. The Idol is useable until the Day 36 Tribal Council.

Four Tribes: For the first time in the series, the castaways were divided in four tribes of four.

Tribe Division: These four tribes are defined according to age and gender, thus having tribes of Older Men (La Mina), Younger Men (Viveros), Younger Women (Bayoneta), and Older Women (Casaya)

Tribe Shuffle: On Day 4, the tribes were mixed up. Viveros and Bayoneta were disbanded, while the contestants were randomly divided into the new Casaya and La Mina tribes. But because of odd numbers, the last unpicked player was sent to Exile Island and was given immunity. He/she will stay there until the tribe that loses the next Immunity Challenge already finished the task of voting out one of their own. After the vote, the exiled player will join that tribe.

The game began with the sixteen competitors split into four tribes by both relative age and gender. They were introduced to the concept of "Exile Island" with the promise of a Hidden Immunity Idol located somewhere on it, while one person from the losing tribe at challenges would be sent to the island and given clues to look for it. After the first four days, the four tribes were merged by Schoolyard Pick with mixed genders into two tribes, Casaya and La Mina. Casaya generally proved the stronger tribe, and opted to send Terry Deitz from La Mina over to Exile Island multiple times, which gave him the opportunity to discover the Hidden Immunity Idol.

Going into the merge, Casaya was up six members to four. Since Terry won five Individual Immunity Challenges in a row, he did not use the Hidden Immunity Idol to save his former La Mina tribe members, leaving him as the sole remaining La Mina member and a perceived Immunity Challenge threat by the other Casaya tribe. Bruce Kanegai was evacuated due a medical emergency, leaving six players at the game and giving everyone a chance to conserve their energy. At this juncture, Cirie Fields, who saw both Terry and Shane Powers looking separately to take Courtney Marit, a weaker player, to the Final Tribal Council as an assurance to win the Jury's favor, convinced Aras Baskauskas and Danielle DiLorenzo to blindside the other three, and succeeded in achieving Courtney's elimination. Shane was eliminated at the next Tribal Council. At the final four Tribal Council the vote came down to a fire-making tiebreaker between Cirie and Danielle since Aras had won Individual Immunity and Terry had the Hidden Immunity Idol; Danielle ultimately won, sending Aras' last remaining loyal ally to the Jury. Danielle won the Final Immunity Challenge and opted to take Aras to the Final Tribal Council, eliminating Terry. Aras and Danielle both received lukewarm remarks from the jury, but with five votes to two, Aras won the title of Sole Survivor.

^1Combined Reward and Immunity Challenge.^2With a deadlock tie between Cirie and Danielle, a fire-making challenge was held to determine the elimination. The challenge, which was shown in the following episode, was won by Danielle, eliminating Cirie.

This is the first season to have an episode end with a Tribal Council vote, but no elimination, as “Call the Whambulence!” ended with Danielle and Cirie preparing to start the fire-building tiebreaker, but its result was not featured until the finale.